Deliberative Democracy, Under-Represented Groups and Inclusiveness in Europe

Abstract

In representative democracies, large segments of society are often under-represented in politics. In theory, deliberative procedures enhance the chances for such groups to be heard, understood, and taken into consideration in political decisions. So far, research has mostly focused on the recruitment stage and found random selection of participants as the best way to prevent exclusion. Less attention has been paid to the two following stages of deliberation: the event itself and its outcome. This special issue provides theoretical and empirical contributions to the burgeoning literature about deliberative democracy by focusing on group inclusiveness. The contributions approach inclusiveness in deliberative practices from several perspectives and brings together substantive empirical evidence about its functioning and main challenges in European countries.

Keywords:

• deliberative democracy
• inclusiveness
• societal groups
• decision-making
• Europe

Acknowledgment

The authors are grateful to Angela Jain, the journal’s associate editor, for her constructive comments and excellent suggestions on earlier versions of this article. This article is based upon work from COST Action “Constitution-making and deliberative democracy” (CA17135), supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).